Four studies are proposed to extend previous research on marital interaction and intervention for distressed couples. The first study is a naturalistic investigation of the conversations of couples at home, with audio taping for an extended period. It is designed to extend previous work beyond conflict resolution and to learn how couples maintain rapport and closeness, which is assumed to be important in relationships as a context for resolving conflict. The second study investigates the role of emotional expressiveness and responsiveness, and asymmetry in responsiveness in marital interaction. This study involves frame-by-frame, detailed coding of facial expressions during interaction. Both studies 1 and 2 utillze sequential analytic methods. Study 3 is a detailed analysis of the role of nonverbal communication accuracy that dismantles sender from receiver distortion of emotional messages. Study 4 is designed to test interventions based on Study 1 and previous work on teaching couples to resolve conflict. It investigates the roles of both non-conflict-resolution interaction and conflict resolution in enhancing marital satisfaction and marital interaction, assessed with a Structural Model of marital interaction previously developed by the Principal Investigator.